What happened to the players of the Russian national team who defeated Spain

Exactly a year ago, the Russian national football team won, perhaps, its main victory in history at the moment, having beaten Spain in the penalty shoot-out in the playoffs of the homeworld championship.

The World Cup is the main football event of the four year period. This is not the best quality football from a team point of view, since the national teams do not have the opportunity to hone tactics and interaction every day, like clubs, but at the same time it is the quintessence of the work of football players, the battle for their country, unity with the people.

At the homeworld championships, the Russian team managed to accomplish what seemed to be impossible: the team led by Stanislav Cherchesov in the 1/8 finals passed the formidable Spanish team.

In the course of that meeting, Russia found itself in the position of a catching side, however, thanks to a goal by Artem Dziuba, he scored from the penalty spot in the first half, after which the Spaniards unsuccessfully pressed in the remaining time and were unable to break through Igor Akinfeev, who also became the hero of the post-match series of eleven meters, reflecting two hits and leading our team to the quarterfinals.

The football world Cup is also a big fair, after which big deals are often made out on the transfer market. This has been happening for several decades. It is especially interesting to see what happened to the careers of Russian football players who participated in that World Cup.

30 million for Golovin

The only player in the Russian national team, who went to a foreign club after the World Cup, was Alexander Golovin, a midfielder of the Moscow CSKA.

Rumours about his possible departure abroad crawled even before the start of the world forum, and Golovin’s bright game and a free kick in the opening match against Saudi Arabia (5: 0) only increased their circulation.

As a result, the English “Chelsea” and the French “Monaco” joined in the fight against the originally Italian Juventus who claimed the midfielder of the army, and it was the last one to win this race.

The final decision was left to Golovin himself, who reasoned that in League 1 he would better adapt to European football, while in Monaco he would get a stable playing practice, which certainly would not have been in Chelsea and Juve.

In general, it happened. Golovin was the unconditional player in the starting lineup of the Monegasques. On account of Alexander 30 matches in the championship of France last season, three goals and the same number of assists.

At the same time, “Monaco” itself, from a contender for at least a place in the Champions League, turned into a fighter for survival and barely escaped from relegation from League 1, while fans repeatedly criticized the transfer of a Russian for 30 million euros paid for him by the club.

However, in Monaco itself, Golovin is satisfied, head coach Leonardo Jardim believes in him and it's too early to call this transition a failure. Much will become clear already during the new season. Let's wait.

Changed clubs

In addition to Golovin, only four people changed clubs from last year’s convocation, and two did so already in winter. Only Fedor Smolov and Denis Cheryshev were in the new teams after the World Cup

For Smolov that summer was a disappointment. He rode to the World Cup as the best Russian RPL scorer for the past three seasons and an unconditional starting striker but ended up sitting in reserve after a failed game with Saudi Arabia, where he was replaced during the match.

Artyom Dziuba, who entered the field, immediately scored and took a place at the base, leadership in the team and the love of the fans.

Smolov could not cope with that situation and could not prove himself by going on substitutions during the tournament, which he did in each of the remaining matches. Moreover, the attacker also managed to become an antihero.

If in the post-match series with the Spaniards he took his shot, then against Croatia in the quarterfinals he decided to execute an eleven-meter “panel”, and Daniel Subašić made a key save in many ways.

After the World Cup, a real wave of fan criticism fell upon Smolov, and the football player himself, who openly spoke about his dreams of pursuing a career abroad, was forced to forget about it.

Fedor was not particularly needed, and Krasnodar, who was glad to sell it to Moscow Lokomotiv. “Railwaymen” laid out about 8 million euros for the player, but it is unlikely that the investment has paid off at the moment.

Smolov played 22 matches for Loko in the RPL, but scored only six times and twice assisted his partners. Last season, Lokomotiv lost its league title, stupidly flew out of the Champions League in the group stage, but won the Russian Cup, although Smolov did not shine in this tournament either.

Cheryshev that summer left Villarreal to Valencia, and the deal was framed as a lease. Denis was one of the heroes of the Mundial, having distinguished himself on it four times, but in the new season, he ran into problems.

Fans of “Valencia” for a long time did not accept the Russian winger, but he still managed to overcome this dislike and helped white and black qualify for the Champions League and win the Spanish Cup, although he did not play in the finals due to injury.

The other day, “Valencia” agreed with “Villarreal” on the repurchase of Cheryshev on an ongoing basis, which spent 5 million euros, although under the terms of the contract the option of repurchasing was three million more.

Winter transfers

In winter, the teams were replaced by Alexander Samedov and Fedor Kudryashov.Spartak midfielder did this not entirely of his own free will.

The veteran was not needed by the new red-white mentor Oleg Kononov, although he played a little after Massimo Carrera after the World Cup. As a result, Samadov spent the second part of the championship in Samara “Wings of the Soviets”, helped them not to fly out, and after the season announced the end of his career.

The situation with Kudryashov is much more interesting. The defender played for six months in Kazan “Rubin”, but due to salary delays, he freely terminated the contract with the club and signed an agreement with the Turkish “Istanbul”, which at that time confidently led in the Super League.

The start of a career in Istanbul with an experienced Russian turned out to be excellent - a goal in the debut match and then four more games in the starting lineup without replacements.

However, after the March games of the Russian national team, where Kudryashov also played both matches of qualification for Euro 2020 completely, he settled in the reserve of Istanbul for five games. True, his team won only one of them and allowed Galatasaray to win a huge margin.

In the last three rounds, Kudryashov returned to the squad, but after defeating Ankaragucu there was a derby with Galatasaray (1: 2), in which the Russian club lost the championship title.

At the end of the season, the parties decided to part, and now Fedor is looking for a new team. He was no longer able to agree on the terms of the contract with the Moscow Spartak, of which he is a pupil, and now he is interested in Akhmat and Zenit.

What's with the rest

None of the players in that team changed the team anymore. His inveterate career ended immediately after the World Cup, seasoned Sergei Ignashevich,Yuri Zhirkov and Igor Akinfeev no longer play for the team, and all the rest remain in the cage of the country's main team.

Periodically, transfer rumours about leaving for the top 5 European championships appear regarding the Miranchuk brothers from Lokomotiv, who have turned into important players for the national team in a year, Roman Zobnin and Ilya Kutepov are quoted in Europe.

The country's main football player right now, having won the league title with Zenit, seems to have gathered in the English Premier League and does not even agree to the top team.

For this, the striker even concluded a contract with an agent company Jorge Mendes, whose client is Cristiano Ronaldo himself, but so far he’s in the same place where he was, and Dziuba is at training camp with Zenit.

It must be noted that no matter what the historical and important victory of the Russian national team over Spain, it did not give an impetus to the development of careers to Russian football players.

You can get acquainted with other materials, news and statistics on the page of the European Football Championship - 2020, as well as in groups of the sports department in the social networks Facebook andVkontakte.

What happened to the players of the Russian national team who defeated Spain
Reviewed by SportsDid
on
August 18, 2019
Rating: 5